Vladimir Stoychev

Vladimir Dimitrov Stoychev (24 February 1892-27 April 1990) was a Colonel-General of the Bulgarian Army who commanded the Bulgarian 1st Army during World War II.

Biography
Vladimir Dimitrov Stoychev was born on 24 February 1892 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and he graduated from the Theresian Military Academy in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He fought in the Balkan Wars and World War I, and he became a renowned equestrian and Olympian, representing Bulgaria in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics. From 1930 to 1934, he served as a military attache in France and the United Kingdom, and he led the Sofia Cavalry Academy from 1934 to 1935, when he was fired for his affiliation with the Zveno party. In 1944, he joined the Bulgarian Fatherland Front, and he became the commander of the Bulgarian 1st Army after Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. His army helped in drawing the Germans out of Yugoslavia and Hungary, and the army ended the war in the Austrian Alps on 8 May 1945. From 1945 to 1947, he represented communist Bulgaria in the United Nations, and he presided over the Bulgarian Olympic Committee from 1951 to 1982. He died in Sofia in 1990 at the age of 98.